1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cloud computing systems, and more particularly to cloud file storage systems. Even more particularly, this invention relates to an object storage infrastructure for cloud-based services.
2. Description of the Background Art
There are currently several options available to address the need for file storage. One option is a shared network file system (NFS) server. The NFS protocol allows a client computer to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed. Another option is to use a storage area network (SAN), which is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. A SAN generally provides only block level storage and access, but there are SAN file systems that provide file-level access.
As yet another option, there are cloud storage systems such as, for example, the S3 storage service offered by Amazon. In cloud computing systems, computing and storage services are provided to remote clients over a wide area network such as the Internet.
All of the foregoing object storage options have disadvantages. For example, the burden of scaling falls on the client applications. This is because the client application needs to maintain additional logical to physical mapping(s) to distribute a namespace across multiple shared data stores. In addition, cloud stores are ideal for storing less frequently used (archival) objects, but don't provide the low latency requirements, mandatory for storing file server objects. Furthermore, the foregoing storage options suffer episodes downtime for system maintenance, patches, etc., which cause the stored objects to be periodically unavailable.
What is needed is a cloud-based object storage solution that overcomes or at least reduces the disadvantages discussed above.